Out of Place or Out of Time?
by WesDaaman
Summary: An insane poacher has acquired a magical diamond that will grant him glory. The Mystery Shack crew must stop him, not just for the sake of innocent wild critters, but also to stop the madman from tampering with the cosmic balance of time and space. Where and when they all end up is strange and interesting. They could be at any place... any time.
1. A Madman Prepares

The shady man sat at his desk in his old cabin with eyes of greed. He skimmed through the old textbook he found at a library, reveling in his formulating plan. He was a man against the law. He was a hunter with no honor. He hunted both during hunting seasons and non-hunting seasons. He even cruelly killed his nonhuman victims in ways that no true hunter would do, tormenting the victim as it died, with no fair fight. Even his Dog hunting companions had deserted him due to his pride, greed, and temper tantrums. His face was on wanted posters.

Now, he planned to get even more illegal fame. He still had not learned from all his mistakes, apparently.

Recently, since the Age of Redemption, more environmental conservationists and park rangers were foiling his plans and he got fewer poached hunting trophies nowadays. Now, it was all about to change.

The textbook he skimmed through was one on wild Animal life of this land and close by. But it did not just feature your average game critters. And to gain access to these things never before seen in the flesh by Human eyes, he had acquired a special crystal by stealing from the Mystery Shack. Legend had it that this diamond of rainbow-like reflective colors could allow one to warp anywhere throughout reality and even pass through time.

"Poached glory... here I come..." he said to himself, grinning widely and beginning to slightly laugh from giddy excitement. "People will also pay big to see what I've got..."


	2. Alert Now!

Soos was on break and had pulled out an old typewriter from the closet. He was typing like mad on it, looking really into what he was typing about.

Dipper was just passing by while looking through an encyclopedia, when he noticed Soos seriously typing hard on the typewriter at the counter, right next to the cash register. "Hey, Soos. What are you doing to that poor, innocent typewriter?"

"Hi, Dipper-dude-buddy!" said Soos happily, "I've gotten really obsessed with this new TV show out called Glorious Girl and Bodacious Boy's Adventures, a detective/adventure animated series about two teenagers who are childhood sweethearts that travel the world solving mysteries, including investigating crimes. Sometimes they are accompanied by Bodacious Boy's little sister and Glorious Girl's little brother. They hunt criminals, discover artifacts, find mysterious monsters. It's very enthralling, I tell you, dude!"

"So... what does that have to do with the typewriter?" asked Dipper, feeling a bit confused.

"I'm writing my own idea for an episode!" Soos said, smiling, "I'm writing my first fanfiction! I'm basically inserting in my own opinions! Maybe I can even send it to the show's studio, SalamanderBog Studio, to see if it's approved!"

"Your own opinions?" said Dipper, hardly believing what he was hearing, "Don't tell me your going to set up shoehorned romances!"

"Uh, that's a bit of a harsh generalization, Dipper," said Soos, still working on the typewriter.

 _I never thought Soos would be one to write fanfiction, but okay_ , Dipper thought to himself.

"C'mon, dude. Give Soos a break, why don't ya?" said Wendy, who was just passing by at the moment, briefly giving Dipper a playful rub on the head, causing him to blush and smile. He glanced up at her and felt his heart sing when he looked at her beautiful freckled face, pretty eyes and long fiery red hair.

All of a sudden, the fantasy was broken by something familiar. A silly sibling. Mabel burst through the door, yelping hysterically. Soos jumped from his seat in surprise, falling backward out of his chair. "Grunkle Stan and Grunkle Ford just found something odd and potentially dangerous!" announced Mabel.

"Uh oh," said Dipper, feeling a bit nervous if this reported problem made even Mabel, his usually always happy twin sister, worked up. He gripped Wendy's hand for attempted comfort. "What is it?"

"They say some lunatic man is meddling with the ways of time and space. Some poacher lunatic!" replied Mabel.

"A poacher?" said Soos, getting back up on his feet an brushing off his shirt and adjusting his hat. "That's not cool for a dude to do that."

"As you all know, I have personal issues with those that kill for pleasure," said Wendy, with a worried, almost angry look on her face, flashing back to her time amongst the Sasquatches of the forest.

"Okay now," Dipper announced, "We've dealt with a lot of things that could endanger all of existence. Invasions, curses, weird apocalypses, you name it! But space and time we need to save from disrupted? I-I'm not sure I'm ready for something like that. I've watched too many movies and read too many stories that revolve around the subject. Including Ray Bradbury's _A Sound of Thunder._ "

"Hey, we can do it," said Mabel, giving her brother a reassuring hug, "Because together, there's nothing we can't do."

Dipper sighed. "I've that phrase 'there's nothing we can't do' in popular culture so many times-"

"But it's true, dude," said Soos, giving his young friend a reassuring pat on the head.

"I certainly believe we can do it," added Wendy. She then knelt down a bit and looked Dipper in the eye. "Especially with you guiding us, my man." She kissed his cheek and Dipper felt as if he were melting from sheer pleasure.


	3. Warp Through the Space-Time Continuum

Once Dipper, Mabel, Wendy, and Soos all consulted Stan and Ford, they were informed more about the situation going on. They learned more of the insane outlaw poacher, who was apparently known as Gunslinger Garrett. He was an insane man with an insane lust for killing nonhumans for the sheer pleasure of it all, as well as to sell remains to illegal black markets. He even tortured his innocent victims as they died. Even his hunting Dogs had abandoned him due to all the evil they could sense from him.

Now, from what Stan and Ford had heard, the insane madman had rounded up other criminal poachers with similar ambitions to his. He had stolen a special, powerful diamond from Mystery Shack; known as the Warp Diamond, this magical artifact allowed one to teleport anywhere on Earth, or even anywhere in the Universe. It could not just travel through space, but also had the secondary ability to even travel through time. Whatever his mission and goal, Gunslinger Garrett was up to no good.

Already, Stan and Ford had asked the four young ones to stand in the middle of the Mystery Shack's living room as part of the ritual to go after Garrett. Ford, using a technique he learned from his studies in the supernatural, raised a special Gray Wolf legbone that had been exposed to the Warp Diamond's power to figure out exactly where/when Gunslinger Garret had gone to. However, just before the two old brothers could reveal what they had learned, the enchanted legbone had already warped Dipper, Mabel, Wendy and Soos away through the spacetime continuum like there was no tomorrow. This meant that the four young heroes would have to work on this mission without the two old men.

The four heroes found themselves travelling through a colorful vortex with flashes of electric-looking energy all around them. The sounds of zapping and warping echoed all around. While Dipper and Wendy found this ride to be frightening, Mabel and Soos were loving it - Mabel was already riding on Soos's shoulders, hollering along with him. For comfort, Dipper and Wendy hugged each other and closed their eyes until the "ride" was over.

* * *

Finally, the warp through reality stopped. Our heroes found themselves tumbling into a small forest clearing. Soos landed first, going face first into a bush. "Oof!" he yelped. "Dude, that was some ride!"

"Yahoo!" hollered Mabel, who landed on Soos's back. "Again! Again! Again!"

Dipper and Wendy landed against Soos and Mabel. Wendy opened her eyes and was thrilled that that perilous travel was over for now. "Dipper! Open your eyes, now! We're good. And we've made it."

"W-we did?" asked Dipper shyly as he opened his own eyes, brushed dirt off his shirt, and peered around in amazement at the land around them.

They were in a small forest clearing surrounded by familiar-looking Conifers and Flowering Plant trees and bushes, yet they were slightly different looking from the kinds our heroes were more familiar with. The forest itself was apparently atop some big hills, because they saw just beyond the trees a slope going down about half a mile to an open sunny plain. It was a great hilly grassland with a few minor groves of trees dotting it. A long river wound across it. From the distance they herd the calls of unknown herd Animals. Birds twittered overhead.

"It's beautiful," said Mabel. "Funny thing, but my candy-sense is weak. Is there no candy here? I think I might die!"

"Calm down, Mabel," Soos reassured Mabel, patting her shoulder, "But yeah, things seem different here than from back home even though the environments look strikingly similar."

"Yeah. This sure is one interesting place," commented Wendy in awe, "Wherever it is."

"Or whenever." said Dipper, looking around for any possible predator ambush that might occur out of nowehere. "As we know, the power of the Warp Diamond can traverse both space _and_ time. We were precisely following Gunslinger Garret's coordinates to here. We could be any place... any time. So it's probably best we don't touch anything."

Soos realized, just as Dipper finished, that he was holding a small fallen tree branch he just happened to pick up while getting back to his feet. He immediately dropped it, hoping to follow Dipper's instructions.

Dipper then explained that since being warped, some of the Warp Diamond's power on the wolf legbone had been absorbed into his own body. Therefore, they could track down Gunslinger Garret, literally following the feeling in Dipper's gut.

But just as they got prepared to leave and follow the directions the power told Dipper, something watched them from the underbrush. With its yellow, catlike eyes, it watched the newcomers with both curiosity and hunger.


End file.
